Projected Suns depth chart and rotation entering the regular season

As has been well-established, the Phoenix Suns are coming into the 2024-25 season with the most expensive roster in the league and expectations that are nothing short of title contention. They have little in the way of roster flexibility and a superstar in Kevin Durant who is entering his age-36 season, so the clock is ticking.

In year one of this experiment with the Big Three of Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, it was a bumpy ride through an inconsistent regular season that yielded zero playoff wins, having been unceremoniously dispatched by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the playoffs.

Though they had little to work with in roster-building resources due to their sky-high payroll, the front office was able to make some interesting moves on the margins to get the most bang for their buck. In the draft, they did some creative wheeling and dealing with what little draft equity they had to pick up Ryan Dunn at the end of the first round and Oso Ighodaro near the top of the second.

After a year filled with turnovers and calls for a point guard, they signed Tyus Jones and Monte Morris on minimum salaries, which look like they are going to provide a lot of value. Jones, a player who had no business being available for the minimum, was immediately identified as the starting point guard.
They also leveraged a minimum salary exception for a veteran backup center in Mason Plumlee, who is expected to be an upgrade over Drew Eubanks, at a minimum.

With the new veteran additions, the return of Royce O'Neale and Josh Okogie on new contracts and some unexpectedly solid play from their rookies, this top-heavy team is looking like it might actually be able to field a roster of quality depth. In conjunction with a new coach in Mike Budenholzer, this has many fans of the league feeling optimistic about an improvement on last year's disappointing finish.

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Suns projected depth chart for 2024-25

In addition to the guaranteed roster spots listed above, the Suns also have Collin Gillespie, Jalen Bridges and TyTy Washington Jr. on two-way contracts who will cycle between the G-League and the active roster. They do have one open roster spot, so there is room for the conversion of one of their two-way players or another player outside the roster altogether if they want to fill it.

As previously mentioned, the starting unit for this team has been pretty much set in stone since the signing of Jones. Positions are largely a thing of the past, particularly on the wings, but if you want to quibble with designating Booker or Beal at small forward, go for it. We saw Beal matched up with bigger players like Zion Williamson last season, so he gets the arbitrary distinction here.

With Jones and Morris in tow, the Suns look likely to play a traditional point guard throughout the game, at least to start the season. Collin Gillespie has also shown that he could be ready for a steady role on an NBA bench as well, so in the event of injury or other circumstances, he could find himself on the floor throughout the year.

The challenge with traditional point guards on this roster is that it makes an already undersized team even smaller. Additionally, there is nobody in this starting lineup that would be considered a high-level defender at the point of attack. For these reasons, there could be some interesting decisions that get made in high-stakes games IF someone on the bench steps up and shows an ability to contribute in these areas.

Grayson Allen filled this role for the team last season. He does have more size than someone like Beal or Jones but isn't truly providing huge value on the defensive end, admirably as he tried. He also led the league in three point accuracy last year, providing elite shot making on the other end. Royce O'Neale also played big minutes for this team last year and has decent defensive chops but he can be overmatched by the best perimeter creators and is even smaller than Allen. Regardless of whether they're in starting or closing lineups, these two will be a huge part of their rotation throughout the year.

The unexpected wild card is rookie Ryan Dunn, who came in out of Virginia with amazing defensive tools and a checkered college career as an offensive player, to put it nicely. But after making only 12 threes in two college seasons, he came out in preseason with an extreme amount of confidence and no hesitation from deep, converting on 13-for-30 (43.3 percent) in five exhibition games. If this were to sustain throughout the season, he'd end up a an amazing draft-day steal for the Suns.

Teams with title aspirations aren't normally counting too heavily on rookies for major contributions, but Dunn offers the size and defensive ability to be an elite player on that end of the floor. If this shooting is real - and let's not get too crazy yet - then he could force Coach Budenholzer to start making some tough decisions about who is on the court in the biggest moments, with Jones or perhaps even Beal needing to make room for the talented rookie.

At the back end of the rotation, the team's other rookie in Oso Ighodaro has impressed in a way that may have him pushing for minutes off the bench. At a minimum, they'll feel good about him being inserted into the rotation in the event of injuries that are sure to come. Bol Bol remains an enigma with tantalizing tools that has yet to put it together consistently (particularly on defense) enough to get steady minutes, but he offers size that the team doesn't have much of on the wings. Josh Okogie figures to be a trade candidate who gets spot minutes in the event that Dunn is not quite ready.

Health permitting, the Suns are looking like they can build on last year's foundation to improve their spot in the standings this year. Whether that is enough to get them into the inner circle of true championship contenders remains to be seen.